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North Korean Defectors and The Million Dollar Irish Potato

I feel overwhelmed by North Korean People’s suffering. I have so many questions about North Korea:

How does all this start? How are human rights in North Korea limited? How do North Koreans escape North Korea? Where do they go? Where do they hide? How does this harrowing journey to freedom pass? What are the North Korean Diaspora destinations? What happens to North Korean Defectors in China? What’s China’s strategy for North Korean Defectors? Who are the people helping to deliver North Koreans to safety? How well do North Korean Defectors integrate into South Korea? Which challenges do they face?

And here is the most important one: how can I help North Korean Defectors?

Last Thursday, I went to the Express Bus Terminal to buy a few stationary things for my next Workshop, Far From Heaven. The Unspeakable Lives of North Korean People. On my way to my favorite stationer’s shop, I crossed Shinsegae Department Store. All of a sudden everything seemed to me so surreal. Cleef and Arpels. La Prairie. Everything so clean. Everything so white. The perfect portrait of luxury. I had to stopped for a few seconds.

I remembered thinking: this world is so weird!

Potato #345 (2010) by Kevin Abosch. A photo of an Irish potato taken by a world-famous visual artist has sold for more than $1 million.

A look at Barbie’s new body types, including tall, curvy and petite. Photo: Barbie

Found on Pinterest.

It is not easy to deal with all this ordeal. So many people ( all these unbearable figures). So much pain indeed. What can we do? we asked ourselves. We suffer because we believe we cannot alleviate this evil. There is a sadness trace in our hearts although the day-to-day life might keep us busy enough to take all this suffering off our mind.

“What can we do? You know, What can we do?” But this feeling of helplessness is just a another limiting belief. Limiting beliefs constraint us in some way. They are only what we think though, there is no necessarily truth in them. How do we fight them?

There is only a way to fight a limiting belief: to exchange it by another more powerful and empowering one. Here we are that I believe that we can help North Korean People.

I have created Far From Heaven. The Unspeakable Lives of North Korean People because I truly believe in solidarity and there is always a chance to challenge the status quo. We can help North Korean Defectors to find freedom and let them master their own lives. If you come next February, 29th you will see it firsthand.

Let me tell you what we have planned for next Monday, February 29th.

Finally, I would like to underline the bi-dimensional approach of this workshop. First, the participatory approach.There is a great panel of speakers but somehow we will manage to hear your voice because we do need to hear you.

Secondly, the positive approach opposite a victim-oriented approach. We want to focus on how we can offer higher quality support to North Korean defectors – empowering more of them to create lasting change in their lives and communities around.